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of Independence 
1770 



XLbe 

II, S. 

H)eclat:ation of lfnbepen5ence 

1776 



Xiteral print 



WASHINGTON 

department of State 

1911 



^a 







IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776. 

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united 
States of. America, 

WHEN in the Course of human events, it 
becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political 
bands which have connected them with another, and to 
assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and 
equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's 
God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of man- 
kind requires that they should declare the causes which 

impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to 

be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are 
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, 
that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Hap- 
piness. That to secure these rights. Governments are 

instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the 

consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of 

Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the 
Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute 
new Government, laying its foundation on such principles 
and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall 
seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. 
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long estab- 
lished should not be changed for light and transient causes; 
and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are 
more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to 

3 



right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are 
accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpa- 
tions, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design 
to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is thtir right, it 
is their duty, to throw off" such Government, and to provide 

new Guards for their future security. Such has been the 

patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the 
necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems 
of Government. The history of the present King of Great 
Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all 
having in direct object the establishment of an absolute 
Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be 

submitted to a candid world. He has refused his Assent 

to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public 

good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of 

immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their 
operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so 

suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. 

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of 
large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish 
the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inesti- 
mable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has 

called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncom- 
fortable, and distant from the depository of their public 
Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compli- 
ance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative 

Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his 

invasions on the rights of the 'people. He has refused 

for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be 



5 , 

elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Anni- 
hilation, have returned to the People at large for their exer- 
cise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all 
the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions 

within. He has endeavoured to prevent the population 

of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for 
Naturalization of Foreigners; .refusing to pass others to 
encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions 

of new Appropriations of Lands. '- — He has obstructed 

the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to 

Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. He has made 

Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their 

offices, and the amount and payf^ent of their salaries. 

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither 
swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their 

substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace. 

Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. 

He has affected to render the Military independent of and 

superior to the Civil power. He has combined with 

others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitu- 
tion, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to 

their Acts of pretended Legislation : For quartering 

large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting 

them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders 
which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these 

States: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the 

world : For imposing Taxes on us without our Con- 
sent : For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of \\ 

Trial by jury : For transporting us beyond Seas to be ^i 



tried for pretended offences: For abolishing the . free 

System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, estab- 
lishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its 
Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit 
instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these 

Colonies : For taking away our Charters, abolishing our 

most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of 

our Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures, 

and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for 

us in all cases whatsover. He has abdicated Government 

here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War 

against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our 

Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our 

people. He is at this time transporting large Armies of 

foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, deso- 
lation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of 
Cruelty «& perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barba- 
rous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized 

nation. He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken 

Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Coun- 
try, to become the executioners of their friends and Breth- 
ren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has 

excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has en- 
deavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the 
merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an 
undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. 
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for 
Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions 
have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, 



whose character is thus marked by every act which may 
define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. 
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish 
brethren. We have warned them from time to time of 
attempts by their legislature to extend an .unwarrantable 
jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the cir- 
cumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We 
have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and 
we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred 
to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably inter- 
rupt our connections and correspondence They too have 
been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We 
must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces 
our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of man- 
kind. Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. 

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united 
States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appeal- 
ing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our 
intentions, do, in the Name, and by authority of the good 
People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That 
these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free 
AND Independent States; that they are Absolved from 
all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political 
connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is 
and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and 
Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, con- 
clude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to 
do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may 
of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, 



8 



with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, 
we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes 
and our sacred Honor. 

John Hancock 

Geo. Taylor 



Button Gwinnett 

Lyman Hall 

Geo Walton. 

W^ Hooper 

Joseph Hewes, 

John Penn 

Edward Rutledge. 

Tho^ Heyward Jun^ 

Thomas Lynch Jun^ 

Arthur Middleton 

Samuel Chase 

W^ Paca 

Tho? Stone 

Charles Carroll of Car- 

rollton 
George Wythe 
Richard Henry Lee. 
Th Jefferson 
Benj"^ Harrison 
Tho^ Nelson jr. 
Francis Lightfoot Lee 
Carter Braxton 
RoB*^ Morris 
Benjamin Rush 
Benj^ Franklin 
John Morton 
Geo Clymer 
Ja^ Smith. 



James Wilson 
Geo. Ross 
Casar Rodney 
Geo Read 
Tho M: Kean 
W^ Floyd 
Phil. Livingston 
Fran^ Lewis 
Lewis Morris 
Rich? Stockton 
Jn° Witherspoon 
Fra? Hopkinson 
John Hart 
Abra Clark 
JosiAH Bartlett 
W^ Whipple 
Sam^ Adams 
John Adams 
Rob'^ Treat Payne 
Elbridge Gerry 
Step Hopkins 
William Ellery 
Roger Sherman 
Sam^^ Huntington 
W^^ Williams 
Oliver Wolcott 
Matthew Thornton 



HISTORICAL NOTE. 

The delegates of the United Colonies of New Hamp- 
shire; Massachusetts Bay; Rhode Island and Providence 
Plantations; Connecticut; New^ York ; New Jersey; Penn- 
sylvania; New Castle, Kent, and Sussex, in Delaware; 
Maryland; Virginia; North Carolina, and South Carolina, 
In Congress assembled at Philadelphia, Resolved ow the loth 
of May, 1776, to recommend to the respective assemblies 
and conventions of the United Colonies, where no govern- 
ment sufficient to the exigencies of their affairs had been 
established, to adopt such a government as should, in the 
opinion of the representatives of the people, best conduce to 
the happiness and safety of their constituents in particular, 
and of America in general. A preamble to this resolution, 
agreed to on the 15th of May, stated the intention to be 
totally to suppress the exercise of every kind of authority 
under the British crown. On the 7th of June, certain reso- 
lutions respecting independency were moved and seconded. 
On the loth of June it was resolved, that a committee should 
be appointed to prepare a declaration to the following effect: 
"That the United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, 
free and independent States; that they are absolved from 
all allegiance to the British crown; and that all political 
connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, 
and ought to be, totally dissolved." On the preceding day 

9 



lO 

it was determined that the committee for preparing the 
declaration should consist of five, and they were chosen 
accordingly, in the following order: Mr. Jefferson, Mr. J. 
Adams, Mr. Franklin, Mr. Sherman, Mr. R. R. Livingston. 
On the iithof June a resolution was passed to appoint a 
committee to prepare and digest the form of a confed- 
eration to be entered into between the colonies, and an- 
other committee to prepare a plan of treaties to be proposed 
to foreign powers. On the 12th of June, it was resolved, 
that a committee of Congress should be appointed by 
the name of a board of war and ordnance, to consist of 
five members. On the 25th of June, a declaration of the 
deputies of Pennsylvania, met in provincial conference, ex- 
pressing their willingness to concur in a vote declaring 
the United Colonies free and independent States, was laid 
before Congress and read. On the 28th of June, the com- 
mittee appointed to prepare a declaration of independence 
brought in a draught, which was read, and ordered to lie 
on the table. On the ist of July, a resolution of the con- 
vention of Maryland, passed the 28th of June, authorizing 
the deputies of that colony to concur in declaring the United 
Colonies free and independent States, was laid before Con- 
gress and read. On the same day Congress resolved itself 
into a committee of the whole, to take into consideration the 
resolution respecting independency. On the 2d of July, 
a resolution declaring the colonies free and independent 
States, was adopted. A declaration to that effect was, on the 
same and the following days, taken into further consideration. 
Finally, on the 4th of July, the Declaration of Independence 



1 1 



was agreed to, engrossed on paper, signed by John Hancock 
as president, and directed to be sent to the several assemblies, 
conventions, and committees, or councils of safety, and to the 
several commanding officers of the continental troops, and 
to be proclaimed in each of the United States, and at the 
head of the Army. It was also ordered to be entered upon 
the Journals of Congress, and on the 2d of August, a copy 
engrossed on parchment was signed by all but one of the 
fifty-six signers whose names are appended to it. That one 
was Matthew Thornton, of New Hampshire, who on taking 
his seat in November asked and obtained the privilege of 
signing it. Several who signed it on the 2d of August 
were absent when it was adopted on the 4th of July, but, 
approving of it, they thus signified their approbation. 



